Icebergs and mermaids in Twillingate

We had a holiday weekend in May (Victoria Day) and we were feeling a bit spring-feverish so we cooked up a weekend road trip to visit a new spot. We’d heard rumors about iceberg sightings in a lovely town called Twillingate. None of us had seen an iceberg before, so we booked a room at the waterside hotel and headed off as soon as we finished work & school on Friday afternoon. Four and a half hours later, we were all veeeerrry happy to get out of the car, just in time to unload our bags & tuck the kids into bed.

Next day, we had breakfast in the cafe and wandered around town, plunking rocks into the ocean and admiring lots of colorful old buildings.

We turned up at a tourist boat-ride place and bought our tickets for a trip out to visit the nearest iceberg! While we were waiting on the dock, we met a very large mermaid, and passed some time tossing rocks into the harbour and watching them sink in the crystal-clear water.

Our boat ride was sunny and peaceful. Sadie and Mike sat outside on the deck to enjoy the view, but Hattie wanted to get inside out of the wind. Once we settled on a bench, she complained heartily about everything, especially boats, then curled up and fell right asleep in my lap!

We woke her up when we spotted the iceberg, it was pretty exciting!

On the boat ride back, we were about to turn in towards Twillingate Harbour when we spotted something that looked like a big, sandy beach? It seemed close enough to town that we thought once we got back on land, we could probably find our way over there, somehow or other.

Once we were off the boat, we got in the car and headed off to look for it. It took some work on Google maps and AllTrails, but it wasn’t too hard to find! We made a pretty easy hike, up and over some ridges and across rocky hills overlooking the water, then down and down a skinny little trail with stairs to reach the beach!

Despite appearances, it turned out not to be a sandy beach. Like lots of the beaches in Newfoundland, it was actually a million rocks, beautiful to look at but no good for running barefoot or building sand castles!

The morning had been surprisingly warm and balmy, but by afternoon there were some dramatic clouds going on. The beach rocks were still super warm, and I had a good lie-down on the warm rocks while Mike and the girls explored the beach and rocks.